There was a time when cricket used to play without boundaries. The measures of the boundary were advertisement board which used to divide the ground and stands. It was hard to get a boundary for players as boundaries were too long, so non-striker and non-striker used frantically run between the wicket. They wanted to pile up enough runs from the stroke. There used to be a corner on television broadcasting where it was shown that batsmen were rushing for runs while in another broad corner fielders were chasing the ball to prevent a boundary.
But, everything has changed because of small boundaries where batsmen found easy to clear the rope.
However, I am not discussing boundaries and sixes hit by batsmen but the distance covered by a batsman running between the wicket. Some of them literally run in their cricketing careers. 22 yards is an iconic figure in the world and history of cricket, but very rarely has it been translated into the legwork put in by batters over the years.
One of the finest batsmen Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan who was not known for athleticism has played most of the career in the big boundaries ground. He was stout, his hilarious run outs used to make people laugh. But, he is one of the batsmen who covered a long distance in his career.
So who has covered the longest distance in their batting careers? Who has done the most marathons in their batting careers? Who has filled each unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run? The answer, I assure, will surprise you.
The all-time chart, including Tests, ODIs, and T20 internationals is not so different from the top run scorer of all time
*KM – Kilometers
*mpi – meters per innings
Overall
|
Batsmen |
Teams |
Overall running between the wickets covered |
|
Brian Lara |
West Indies and ICC |
214. 40 km/412 mpi |
|
Inzamam ul Haq |
Pakistan/Asia/ICC |
223.69/406 mpi |
|
Steve Waugh |
Australia |
224.30 km/ 409 mpi |
|
Shivnarine Chanderpaul |
West Indies |
242.81 km/439 mpi |
|
Rahul Dravid |
India/Asia/ICC |
269.53 km/ 446 mpi |
|
Jacques Kallis |
South Africa/Africa/ICC |
285.50 km/463 mpi |
|
Mahela Jayawardene |
Sri Lanka/ Asia |
286.13/ 395 mpi |
|
Ricky Ponting |
Australia/ICC |
299.45 km/ 448 mpi |
|
Kumar Sangakkara |
Sri Lanka/Asia/ICC |
301.84 km/453 mpi |
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
India |
331.36/424 mpi |
In the 1990’s when modern cricket boomed after a series of experiments nothing was compromised with boundaries. Rainbow jersey, cricket under flood light were introduced to popularize the game. Sanath Jayasuriya was different from amongst the legends who debuted in 1990’s. He was hard hitting opener from Sri Lanka. His shot used to clean the rope often. But he had run less than former Australian captain Steve Waugh. Another significant name in the list is Pakistan great Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was prone to run out. But, this maestro from Multan has run over 223 kilometers in his illustrious career. Inzamam’s countrymate Javed Miandad was 9 kilometers behind of him. Younis Khan, who is the highest run scorer for Pakistan Test, is the longest runner among active players, is a good 29 km behind of Inzamam.
Test
|
Player |
Teams |
Overall running between the wickets covered |
|
Mahela Jayawardene |
Sri Lankan |
118.71 km/ 471 mpi |
|
Sunil Gavaskar |
India |
118.75 km/555mpi |
|
Steve Waugh |
Australia |
122.87 km/ 473 mpi |
|
Kumar Sangakkara |
Sri Lanka |
123.34 km/ 529 mpi |
|
Allan Border |
Australia |
128 km/483 mpi |
|
Shivnarine Chanderpaul |
West Indies |
131 km/ 483 mpi |
|
Rahul Dravid |
ICC/India |
131.71 km/461 mpi |
|
Jacques Kallis |
South Africa/ICC |
135.91 km/ 485 mpi |
|
Ricky Ponting |
Australia |
138.91 km/ 484 mpi |
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
India |
146.37/445 mpi |
Only two players have run over 300kms. Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara over their 24 aand 15 years long respective career had run 331 km and 302 km repectively. That means they have covered 15,000 times from one striking end to non striker end. In this list, the significant thing is that Sachin Tendulkar is the only player who has scored more runs from boundaries than by running alongg with Lara.
In terms of marathons Allan Border, Miandad, Lara, Inzamam, Steve Waugh and Chanderpaul have run 5 marathons while Rahul Dravid, Kallis and Jayawardene crossed 6 but fell short of Tendulkar, Sangakkara and Ponting, who have done more than 7 each, with Tendulkar falling 5 km short of 8 boundaries.
However, you can’t think batsman wanted to play slow and steady to accumulate runs, have seen people running a longer distance than ODIs. Tendulkar ran almost 185 km in ODIs, compared to 146 km in Tests. Inzamam really comes into his own in ODIs, running 140 km, which were unfortunately accompanied by 40 run outs, compared to just 83 km and 6 run outs in Tests.
West Indies batting legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Border and Sunil Gavaskar from the Top 10 Test tally are replaced by Inzamam, Azhardurddin Mohmmad Yousuf and Aravinda de Silva on the ODI tally. Sri Lankan batting legends Sangakkara and Jayawardene move up the table with 164 km and 155 km under their betls respectively, while Dravid’s 137 km in ODIs are almost matched by his 131 km in Tests.
ODI
|
Player |
Teams |
Overall running between the wickets covered |
|
PA de Silva |
Sri Lanka |
117.18 km/396 mpi |
|
Mohammad Yousuf |
Pakistan/Asia |
121.52 km/445 mpi |
|
Mohammad Azharuddin |
India |
129.33 km/420 mpi |
|
Rahul Dravid |
India/Asia/ ICC |
137.56 km/433 mpi |
|
Inzamam ul Haq |
Pakistan/Asia |
140.66 km/402 mpi |
|
Jacques Kallis |
South Africa/ Africa/ ICC |
143.11 km/456 mpi |
|
Mahela Jayawardene |
Sri Lankan/Asia |
155.29 km/371 mpi |
|
Ricky Ponting |
Australia/ICC |
157.10 km/430 mpi |
|
Kumar Sangakkara |
Asia/ ICC/Sri Lanka |
164.30 km/432 mpi |
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
India |
184.94 km/409 mpi |
Meanwhile, unsripingly the distances are rather smaller. Brendon McCullum, the only player with 2 T20I centuries, leads the way with 16 km, just 5 short of a half marathon. Apart from him, only 15 players have run 10 km while JP Duminy and Umar Akmal follow with 15 km and 14 km repsectively.
Only two players in the top 10 have shown adaptability across the formats.
To make things more interesting, this list of players have run the most per innings on average. This is completely a different sight. Tendulkar runs just 424 metres per innings (mpi). In the overall index, Kallis leads the chart. He covered 463 mpi, followed by Sangakkara with a brisk 453 mpi. Of the top 10 Jayawardene seems to be the laziest with just 395 mpi, lagging behind Inzamam with 406 mpi.
In T20Is with a qualification of at least 25 innings played, Virat Kohli tops the charts with a comparatively staggering 326 mpi, followed by Faf du Plessis and Kevin Pietersen with 266 mpi and 284 mpi respectively.
T20
|
Player |
Teams |
Overall running between the wickets covered |
|
Ross Taylor |
New Zealand |
11.61 km/ 200mpi |
|
Martin Guptill |
New Zealand |
11.67 km/233 mpi |
|
Mahela Jayawardene |
Sri Lanka |
12.13 km/221 mpi |
|
Mohammad Hafeez |
Pakistan |
12.47 km/189 mpi |
|
Shoaib Malik |
Pakistan |
13.40 km/213 mpi |
|
TM Dilshan |
Sri Lanka |
13.68 km/210 mpi |
|
Kumar Sangakkara |
Sri Lanka |
14.20 km/ 268 mpi |
|
Umar Akmal |
Pakistan |
14.79 km/228 mpi |
|
JP Duminy |
South Africa |
15.41 km/266 mpi |
|
Brendon McCullum |
New Zealand |
16.06 km/229 mpi |
Stats credit: Holding Willey